John Nelly

John Nelly (22 September 1626-1668) was an English pirate who captained frigate "Cuckold". He operated in the Caribbean Sea against the Spanish Empire, and in 1668 he was captured by Spanish heavy first rate "San Genaro". Nelly was hung in Havana, Cuba.

Biography
John Nelly was born in Southampton in the Kingdom of England in 1626, and in 1646 became a pirate alongside the Dutch Watergeuzen during the Dutch Revolt. Preying on Spanish privateers off Dunkirk from 1646 to 1648, he made enemies with the Dunkirkers and in October 1647 razed the port's harbor in a raid. He gained experience as well as the Spanish frigate "Santa Isabel", which he renamed "Cuckold".

With the end of the Spanish-Dutch war in 1648, Nelly moved to the Caribbean to take part in piracy against Spain elsewhere, under a different banner: his own. Nelly captured the Governor of Campeche in 1655 in a raid on New Spain, sailing the Caribbean and plundering Spanish ships. In 1658, Nelly was briefly captured by the Spanish and held in Corpus Christi in Spanish Tejas, but he escaped from the noose and cut his way through the guards.

Nelly was finally brought down in 1668 when he took on Spanish heavy first rate frigate "San Genaro" off the coast of Jagua, Cuba. Nelly's smaller ship fought the Spanish in a naval battle that cost Nelly dearly; his ship was routed, and shortly after he was captured when his ship began to sink. Nelly was held in Havana, and hung for piracy.